Cleaning professionals went from reading our articles and product coverage once a month in print to seeing our stories and coverage every day in the CM e-News Daily, which continues to be a viable resource in this industry.

Today, Cleaning & Maintenance Management is a multi-media information provider and almost a third of its content can be found only on our website because that is how many of our readers prefer to enjoy our content.

Responding to these trends and changing customer needs is critical for organizations to grow and thrive.

Goal Oriented

In order to succeed while battling constant challenges, it is necessary to not only have great leadership, but also an entire organization that is on the same page and focused on a common goal.

Without that common goal to help the organization focus, it is easy for dissention to grow among teammates and this distracts the entire team from its goal.

It is easy to insert a sports analogy here to coincide with Cleaning & Maintenance Management's Editorial Director Rich DiPaolo’s cover feature this month on Jacks And Jills Of All Trades.

For a team to find success, every player needs to contribute, whether he or she is a “specialist” or a “role” player.

If a team specialist has a bad game, but a role player steps up in his or her place, the team still has a good chance to be successful.

If the role player has not prepared properly, the team's chance of being successful is minimal.

Every player on the team is important and every player, regardless of how insignificant he or she might think they are to the team, needs to be prepared and ready to step up.

The same applies as we continue to add responsibilities and expectations to employees and facility personnel.

Yes, we all have to do more; but, without proper training and buy in from everyone on the team, success is not guaranteed.

Hiring well, developing your employees and investing in training will help ensure that your team's players are ready to address any challenges that may come along.

As the great football coach Vince Lombardi once said, “Individual commitment to a group effort — that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.”

So, let’s get to work.

Micah Ogburn is director of business and sales for CMM and the Cleaning Management Institute. He may be reached at micah@issa.com.